Conventional cell culture apparatuses have not had an automatic image analysis function for determining whether or not the culture state is good from an image of a cell. Therefore, the experimenter himself had to take the culture container out of the culture apparatus, and observe the state of cell growth by utilizing a separately installed microscope.
Furthermore, in the culture of cells, there may be cases in which the characteristics of the cultured cells change over generations (cases in which subspecies are generated), so that it is known as a precaution that subspecies will proliferate. To prevent this from happening, cell culture experimenters had to examine past publications or ask cell suppliers (such as cell banks) whether the cells the experimenters were using had lost the basic characteristics of those cells, whether their shape had been retained, and so forth, and they had to be on the lookout for changes in the cells. In order to prevent this, furthermore, it was necessary that cells obtained from a cell bank or the like be propagated right away, that these resulting cells be put in cold storage at an early stage, and that fresh cells be then dissolved and propagated, compared, and checked every few months.